With all this talk about players moving while the transfer window is open, I thought I'd have a quick look at how this season's window is affecting Leeds. Now, normally we would be on here speculating about who we are looking to sign rather than sell. Unfortunately, thanks to our charlatan of an owner we are once again staring at player losses...and quality at that. For me it is simply unthinkable that we would allow Max Gradel or Robert Snodgrass to leave the club, yet it is still likely that both could be gone come Wednesday evening. It is simply galling to watch our great club being used as a cash machine for a greedy little man from Monaco. What club in their right mind sells their best players? We let Beckford go on a free because we wouldn't pay his wages. With Becks in the side last season we would have been in the promotion shake up no doubt. Imagine Gradel supplying Beckford? How would teams have coped with that? And don't start mouthing off about Becks being lazy or complicated or greedy. He scored goals, and that's all that matters, and remember who scored the goal against Bristol Rovers that got us promoted! Right place, right time...can't fault the lad. Now we have Gradel and Snodgrass, both outstanding last season and genuine Premier League players, and we are panicking because the talk is there that they may move on, and no word from our club that this is not so. Peter "The Puppet" Lorimer once again spoke on Friday of the likelihood that Gradel would be going, saying that we could not compete against clubs who are willing to throw money at Leeds. Really? I though we are a profitable club that doesn't need to sell. Ah, but there it is...we don't "need" to sell, we WANT to sell. So we keep getting told that we have no money, we can't afford decent wages, we have no choice but to keep hunting for free transfers and loans. What a crock of ****. We know Beckford was on £6k a week and we weren't prepared to up that. How do we compare to ther clubs? Well, I do know that Hull were keen to get shot of Bullard and his £45k-a-week wages, so I wonder what Ipswich are paying him? Must be upwards of £15k I would have thought. Interesting to see that Hull have stated that without Bullard they have set a wage budget of £12-million for this season. Not bad for a club that probably struggles to bring in a third of Leeds United's revenue. Bates has a very poor record when it comes to money in/money out. There's the Delph £6m which has been nowhere to be seen, even if it's been paid as instalments. The Cup money and TV revenue...Man Utd/Spurs/Spurs/Arsenal/Arsenal. Those five games would have raised upwards of £2m conservatively. The Schmeichel £1m which I see Bates said in his Programme notes was only £700k. Lying swine. It is clear something is not right with where all our money is going. And we are only talking about "bonus" cash here, not our normal revenues. Now, the key reason we should not be showing ourselves to be a selling club is twofold. One, we do not build for the future by allowing our best young talent to leave, and two, it has a bad effect on team morale. Just look at Arsenal with the sale of Fabregas and Nasri...and yes, I know they have injuries as well, but how many of those injured players just simply don't fancy it right now, and have extended their "pulled hammy" recovery time? Football isn't just about buying and selling, it's also about the psychology of the players, the dynamics of the team, the statement of intent. Players like Gradel and Snodgrass are the future of this club for the next five years. These are the players we need to keep if we are serious about getting back into the Prem, and more importantly, staying there. If we sold these lads and got promotion, how much would we have to pay to replace them? It is clear that whatever money we receive will not go into a transfer pot, and anyway, does Grayson have BETTER players lined up to sign as replacements? No, didn't think so!!! Such players would command a transfer fee, and Bates is loathe to part with any cash. Sorry, but selling our best talent is just brainless, it sends the wrong message and damages our club. PS: Josh, you keep defending Bates with stupid arguments. I am semi-convinced you are one of his Yorkshire Radio cronies. If Lichaj was available, he would have been back here this season on loan. Villa have clearly decided he is part of their squad, as is Bannan, and both those boys can play. Livermore is another example of talent brought in by Grayson and then wasted on the bench. Josh, we have two problems, a scamming chairman and a manager who lacks intelligence.
Agreed, there 2 things! Your either with the fans or your working for bates! What i struggle to see is were a few players short of being a top 2 side! And if its down to wages, then i suggest Bates sells the club and give someone else a go!
Btaes is simply and always will be a con man he has no interest in the club the fans only as a cash cow but he won't leave would you when you can keep getting milk everyday the sooner a big bull comes along the better
I agree, we are a few short of being a top 2 side or atleast probs 1 or 2 short of being a real contender anyway. I really dont understand why people cant see my point that if we sell gradel for 5m and then bring in a couple quality signings using the money, then that is better surely????? I understand the argument that bates wont put money back into the club which is fair enough i highly doubt he would put all of the transfer fee we would possibly get from a sale of gradel back into the team however every player has there price. How much do you think gradel's is out of interest ristac? Ristac, all i am saying is we should sacrifice gradel to become a more well rounded team of good defenders, good midfielders, good attackers rather than having **** defenders, ok midfielders, good attackers.
No point writing things on forums, get out there and show your anger at the way he is ruining the club. Protest (legally) and constant pressure on Bates will succeed, he hates it and I now know the effect it's had on him. SHOUT "BATES OUT" FOR 90 MINUTES, PROTEST OUTSIDE ER AT EVERY HOME GAME AND GET THE LOCAL MEDIA HEAVILY INVOLVED.
good luck with that (and im not saying that sarcastically, i genuinely mean good luck)... i dont think bates could care less about protests about him to be honest
Josh is right. Bates doesn't care about the "morons" who support Leeds or their protests. The only way he will go is if someone offers him a pot of gold to leave. This may prove tricky until/if Leeds get to the Prem. He will over value the club, even though Leeds don't own Elland Road or Thorp Arch. As it stands, he owns a big name club, he generates a healthy profit for his mortgage in Monaco, makes bonus millions on selling players so where is the need to sell? Josh, this is the second time today I've agreed with you, so I've updated my status of you to "semi-convinced" in the thread above
Yeah he is the most thick skinned old git about and protesting will make no difference unfortunatley... As long as bums are filling seats he gets paid whatever happens.
Everyone has their own opinion, if Leeds use the money after just agreeing to sell him fine but the question isn't how much is Gradel worth, it is how much is it going to cost to replace him. Not just his creation of goals but all those goals he scored for us last season. I knew he would be sold, Grayon knew too, you could tell it in the Interviews Grayson was giving, he has been singing Nunez up far too much because they he is trying to drum it into Leeds fans that it is good business.
I think KB truly believes he is the man and can do what he wants. Unless there is so much pressure on the board to oust Bates and find a buyer then we are going nowhere. I just can't see any other course of action than what BigFatBoab says. I totally agree. A 5 minute delay by all fans to enter the SCUM match would send a message to the board and the media when the boys kick off in an empty stadium. KB know what he's doing, he's not out to improve the side, we are a money machine at present so why spend anything? He'll get the same gates as we have loyal fans that would never boycott the club. He's got us by the balls and is not prepared to change. Can see a couple of good points about him but these are just fading away. It's all going bad or is this the calm before the storm?
Completely agree with everything you say. If Snodgrass goes, we're in a relegation battle. Not just because we'd have lost our 2 best players, but because the morale of the team now - it'd be the same as Arsenal, they'll feel like they're on a sinking ship. I'm fed up of seeing my favourite players leave simply because Leeds - the biggest turnover in the Championship - United can't afford their wages. A forward line of Snodgrass, Gradel, Becchio and Beckford would have got us promoted last season. But ofcourse we couldn't afford to pay Becks the wages that he wanted (they wouldn't have been ridiculous either). It's not just him either, it's players like Kilkenny (who SG wanted to keep and we offered a contract) that are finding better wages elsewhere. How much do you reckon these guys are on? Beckford at cash strapped Everton, an unproven player at that level. Johnson, a squad player at a newly promoted club. Kilkenny, not even first choice at Bristol City. They all turned down our contract offers. An absolute joke.
I have posted on another topic about Snoddy, I can only say that the information I have (which is very close to the individual) is that an offer has been accepted for Snoddy and that Leeds would prefer the transfer not to go through till the next transfer window, due to concerns about the impact of the sale of both Gradel and Snoddy during one transfer window. This has resulted in even more serious issues within the board at Leeds and nobody appears to be communicationg with anyone now, except Bates and Grayson. No doubt, Bates will state Snoddy handed in a transfer request to appease some supporters, but I can tell you this is NOT the case and WILL not occur, unless he is forced to.
